Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Lee: I wouldn't worry to much about me finishing mine first. It seems as if the farther the project progresses some of the less desirable parts of my plane that were initially deemed to be acceptable are all becoming unacceptable. Upon removing the boot cowl I discovered some rather interesting techniques for forming the flange around the radii on the firewall, so now it has to go.....

I feel your pain!.

Derek,

I encountered a poorly formed firewall flange on our current project, as well. Some of the rivets went into notches in the flange and did nothing to hold the airplane together. I formed a doubler out of a .040 strip (yes, it does curve) and riveted it to the inside, capturing the boot cowl, attach strip, firewall, and finally the new reinforcing strip. I had to use some "cheater" rivets (-5 shank with -4 heads) because the some of the drilled out holes were too big.

_________________
Bob Highley
N711SH
SN 835
KLAL

Bob,
Thanks for the tip however the poorly formed flange "put the icing on the cake" so to speak. The placement of the holes in the firewall was going to force me to route the cables, wires, etc. in ways the I considered to be less than ideal in order to avoid several patches. That being said the old fw is removed, I have got my hands on some stainless and the good doctor (Scott Stine) has offered his form blocks and firewall forming expertise....